F4E Phantom II

67-2092

27th December 1972

Shot down by MiG-21

On 27 December 1972, Desoto 03, piloted by
Major Carl H. Jefcoat and Lt. Jack Trimble was hit by hostile fire of an
unknown origin forcing the crew to bail out over North Vietnam. Several days later, they were confirmed as POWs. Lt. Trimble and Major Jefcoat were released on 29 March 1973 along with the fourth and last group of POWs to be released by the North Vietnamese.

". . . This night did not mean any more to me than any other
night at Udorn, RTAFB. However, a North Vietnamese pilot in a Mig-21 changed all that in the blink of an eye.

I heard shooting in the area where my pilot had landed so I suspected that he had also been captured. I tried to hide until nightfall but a farmer and his wife found me, and shortly afterwards I was taken prisoner by twenty or thirty armed Vietnamese . . . ."